Nagaland The Night of the Guerrillas


Book Description

This is the explosive story of the underground movement in Nagaland never written before. It is an investigative report of the secret trails where the dew never dries, a trail which ended far beyond the Indian borders, snaking into the monsoon-soaked jungles of Kachin, where men like Zewtu fought and died unsung. These were the forests of no return where men like Kaito, Zhukiye. Mowu, Zuheto and Thinoselie embraced death often and survived. You are about to enter ‘terra incognita’ on the fog-bound heights of the Arakans where many a platoon commander fell, their mission reports unwritten. It is the only book to offer interpretations on: Meikhel: Three of the hallowed stones, of which two fell, according to a Naga prophecy. Oking: Top-secret mobile Headquarters of the Guerrillas. Ahza: A decree which emanated from Oking and could bring death of traitors. Peking: The Chinese connection which made an effort to convert Nagaland into a mini-Vietnam. Kuknalim: “Long live the land” was how the Guerrillas greeted each other, while they talked with bullets. Tatar Hoho: The underground Parliament where democracy prevailed. Alee Command: The Foreign Legion - will it strike again? Kachin: Where the south-east Asian guerrilla movements converge to co-ordinte. In The Night of the Guerrillas, there are no villains - the contending sides were caught between the indomitable and the inevitable. The destiny of the Nagas must have always lain with India while the luckless revolutionaries were searching it elsewhere.




Fighting Like a Guerrilla


Book Description

This book deals with two significant issues: the peculiar and paradoxical question of why regular armies, better suited to fighting conventional high-intensity wars, adopt inappropriate measures when fighting guerilla wars; and the evolution of the Indian army’s counterinsurgency doctrine over the last decade. In addition, the book also includes the first detailed analysis of the trajectory of the army’s counterinsurgency doctrine, arguing that while it was consolidated only over the last decade, the essential elements of the doctrine may in fact be traced back to the army’s first confrontation with the Naga guerillas in the 1950s. It outlines the three essential elements that make up the Indian army’s counterinsurgency doctrine: that there are no military solutions to an insurgency; that military force can only help to reduce levels of violence to enable political solutions; and that there should be limited use of military force. Rajagopalan argues that international circumstances — particularly the need to counter conventional military threats from Pakistan and China — led to a counterinsurgency doctrine that had a strong conventional war bias. This bias also conditioned the organisational culture of the Indian army.




War and Nationalism in South Asia


Book Description

This book presents and analyses the oldest sub-national war of postcolonial South Asia, between the Indian state and the Nagas of Northeast India. It offers a serious and thorough political history on the Naga region over three periods, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and comparative and theoretical literature, Marcus Franke demonstrates that agency and identity-formation are an on-going process that neither started nor ended with colonialism. Although the interaction of the local population with colonialism produced a Naga national élite, it was the emergence of the Indian political class, with access to superior means of nation and state-building, that was able to undertake the modern Indo-Naga war. This war firmly made the Nagas into a 'nation' and that set them onto the road to independence. War and Nationalism in South Asia fundamentally revises our understanding of the existing 'histories' of the Nagas by exposing them to be influenced by colonial or post-colonial narratives of domination. Furthermore, by placing the region into the longue durée of state formation with its involved technique of imperial rule, the book presents a new approach to the study of nationalism and war in South Asia in general. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, history, anthropology and South Asian studies.




Democracies and Small Wars


Book Description

By their nature, democracies clearly have greater constraints than autocratic regimes on their freedom of action as they have to meet constitutional, legal and moral criteria in their use of force. This collection analyses a number of case studies showing how democracies have won small wars.




India's Fragile Borderlands


Book Description

There is a danger in the West of viewing terrorism exclusively through the prism of 9/11. This ground-breaking examination of terrorism in North East India demonstrates how grave a mistake this is. The nature of terrorism is the subject of ever-increasing scrutiny and there are many lessons to be learned from India's borderlands. Terrorism, fostered at first by post-colonial resentments, took root in the region because of an increased sense of cultural identity and perceived discrimination and exclusion by the Indian state. This book examines the long term effects of terrorism on the population of North East India - where the best-known conflict is the Naga tribe's ongoing campaign for a greater Nagaland - as well as its international consequences. "India's Fragile Borderlands" offers a comprehensive study of the nature, origins and history of terrorism in India's North East within an international perspective. Sharing borders with China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma) and Bhutan, the region abounds in nationalist, separatist and even religious organizations that have used terrorism as a strategy to achieve their aims. Archana Upadhyay explores the complex and specific ideologies of these groups while highlighting the cross-border links and connections with organized crime that funds the violence in the region. This important new book includes many insights into the nature of terrorism in India's northeastern frontiers and will be invaluable for students of politics, history and International Relations.




Burma In Revolt


Book Description

This book explains how Burma's booming drug production, insurgency, and counter-insurgency interrelate—and why the country has been unable to shake off thirty years of military rule and build a modern, democratic society.




Lost Opportunities


Book Description

Northeast India has been beset with insurgencies for more than fifty years. The Nagas rebelled in the early 1950s, and since then, insurgency in some form or the other has spread to all the states of the northeast, popularly known as the Seven Sisters. This book takes a critical look at the many insurgencies in this strategic region and reviews their genesis, motivations, and characteristics. Why have these persisted despite interventions by the state and civil society? Over the years, the insurgencies have developed external linkages, which have only complicated matters. The book also critically examines the government's response and traces the development of counter-insurgency strategies, from finding a military solution to winning the hearts and minds of the populace. It is a fascinating but sad story of missed opportunities.




The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland


Book Description

Namrata Goswami’s research on the Naga armed ethnic movement offers a compelling narrative on how conflict has affected the daily lives of the Nagas. This volume is an account of the Naga ethnic movement going on in India since 1918, covering both historical and contemporary aspects of the conflict. Based on over a decade of ethnographic work among the Naga rebels and movement zones, personal interviews, and secondary data, the author offers insights into how the Naga population perceives their meeting point with the institutions of the Indian state, especially the army and the paramilitary. The book documents what it is like, to live in a conflict zone and the restraints and thought processes that it cultivates especially among the youth. The book reveals gripping stories of tremendous courage and conviction from people who have thought about the political unrest, been born into it, taken part in it, or have been affected by it. The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland reflects the Nagas’ love for their land, tracing the poignant mix of nature, land, identity, emotions, culture as well as the inter-ethnic differences that exacerbate the conflict.




Indian Defence Review Vol 31.2 (Apr-Jun 2016)


Book Description

IN THIS VOLUME: ‘Sagara Manthan’: Make in India Transition | Lt Gen JS Bajwa “Our vision in next 10 years is to become top defence industry in the world...” | Interview by Danvir Singh Indian Airborne Troops Script History | Danvir Singh Submarine Ahoy – Whither to Bound? | Rear Adm AP Revi Aerospace and Defence News | Priya Tyagi Higher Defence Organisation for India: Towards an Integrated Approach | Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan Indian Army: Adopting ‘Deep Operations’ Doctrine | Col JK Achuthan The Government’s Burden of Military Security | Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee Global Terrorism: An Analysis of Fault Lines and Risks | Maj Gen SB Asthana Tackling Global Terror | Anil Kumar Tandale Islamic State: The New Brand of Terrorism in India | V Balasubramaniyan India & China Territorial Dispute: The Growing Challenge | Brig Gurmeet Kanwal China-India-Myanmar: The Forgotten Frontier | Air Cmde PC Chopra Myanmar and India: A New Future | Maj Gen Nitin P Gadkari Airfield Security: Lessons for the IAF | Air Marshal Anil Chopra Acoustic Capacity Building in the Indian Ocean Region | Cdr (Dr) Arnab Das & Vice Adm DSP Varma Transportation Infrastructure in the North East | Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja Our Forgotten Wars: Victimisation and Survival in Bodoland | Dr Samrat Sinha Women Officers in the Indian Army: A Reality Check | Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal Socio Economic Transformation: Through Ex-Servicemen | Lt Gen SK Gadeock & Col Nishant Sharma DPP 2016: A Missed Opportunity | Dr SN Misra Defence Budget 2016: Hits and Misses for the IAF | Air Marshal Anil Chopra Privatisation of the Indian Aerospace Industry: Problems and Prospects | Gp Capt AK Sachdev The Patrol Leader | Sumit Walia




Kashmir's Death Trap


Book Description

This book is an effort to recall the life in Kashmir, a state under perpetual conflict. It is a saga of courage, betrayal, passion and hatred seen from the eyes of a young soldier. In this nature’s paradise, is a human hell where the lives are lost daily in pursuit of Ideology. Armed by own set of Justifications India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris battle each other to no end in sight. Zealous young men continue to die for a cause diseased by treachery and celebrated by heroism. The territorial desire of Pakistan has cost dearly to the generations stifled in this conflict. This fight has devastated many a homes with ever widening chasm and deepening scars. Punctuated by blood curdling violence, Kashmiris are prisoners of a historic mistake. In the ongoing series of Pakistan’s grand design to wrest control of this state, a proxy war was unleashed by them in 1989. This war still continues as I write.